Fergie and Glazers happy with progress

SIR Alex Ferguson has revealed the Glazer family have not attempted to interfere at any stage with his management of Manchester United. Malcolm Glazer's £800million takeover of United in 2005 attracted fierce animosity from a section of the Reds support, some of whom subsequently launched rebel club FC United, who have just been promoted to the Unibond League.

SIR Alex Ferguson has revealed the Glazer family have not attempted to interfere at any stage with his management of Manchester United.

Malcolm Glazer's £800million takeover of United in 2005 attracted fierce animosity from a section of the Reds support, some of whom subsequently launched rebel club FC United, who have just been promoted to the Unibond League.

Even though Glazer snr has taken a back seat, leaving sons Joel, Avram and Bryan to run the club, life at Old Trafford has largely continued as normal, helped by a massive new television deal and a superb season on the pitch for Ferguson's team.

And the United manager has confirmed his contentment with the current situation.

"The Glazers have been fine since they took over," he told The Scotsman.

"They haven't interfered with anything we do.

"I have had a couple of meetings with them, although (chief executive) David Gill obviously deals with them more regularly.

"Any time I have been with them, they have simply said to let them know if there is anything I need."

Although the Glazers' continued assurance that funds will be made available for major transfers has yet to be tested, they certainly were not found wanting when asked to stump up an incredible £31million to secure Cristiano Ronaldo's future for the next five seasons.

Dealings

This comes at a time when the Glazers' holding company for their dealings with United, Red Football, has just posted a loss of £137.7million.

While the figure would appear to justify those who fought against the takeover, sources close to the Glazer camp have claimed the losses were in line with expectations and would reduce significantly over the coming years.

A high percentage of the loss comes from the goodwill (the difference between the cost of the takeover and the conservative estimate of the club's worth at the time) generated from the deal, which is £522.4million, a sum that will depreciate by £39.2million a year over 15 years.

Interest payments totalling £85.2million were made in the 14 months to June 2006, £27.2million of which came from cash flow.

However, the Glazers are comfortable with the figures and will not be deflected from their aim of giving Ferguson the funds required to compete at the highest level.

"These are simple accounting losses reflecting the leveraged buy-out by the holding company, which is in line with expectations," said a family spokesman.

"The Glazers continue to invest for the long-term, as demonstrated by the contract extension of Cristiano Ronaldo."

Interest

By staving off interest in Ronaldo from Real Madrid and Barcelona, United have confirmed their status as one of Europe's heavyweights, with Ferguson accepting it was a deal that had to be done, no matter what the cost.

"Of course it was costly," said Ferguson.

"But I told our people 'Look, two or three years down the line, we could be playing Real Madrid and thinking to ourselves that we had the best player in the world and let him go'. Nobody would want that."

With the future of most of his current squad now secure, Ferguson is already looking potential signings.

Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves seems certain to complete a move to Old Trafford in the summer, while interest in Southampton's young full-back Gareth Bale could also be renewed.

In addition, it appears inevitable Ferguson will attempt to reinforce his striking options after yet another season of injury problems for Louis Saha, who performed so well at the start of the campaign following the exit of Ruud van Nistelrooy. Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pederesn has also been linked with a move.

"I would hope to add a couple of players in the summer who will improve us," said the Scot.

"We are talking about that now. There won't be sweeping changes, maybe just one or two coming in who would have the talent to make a difference."